A Career in Pursuing Computers

One of the most frustrating things in life is to forsake ones passion or dream. The problem with forsaken dreams is that they come to haunt you later in life and you start regretting why you did not do this or that.

My younger brother, Joe, almost forsook his lifelong dream to pursue computers both as a passion and also as a career due to devastating health reasons. He belongs to the dot com computer generation born in the 1990’s. An avid computer enthusiast, Joe almost forsook his passion and dream due to visual impairment. However, an assistive technology called Vinux enabled him to overcome his visual constraints and hence keep his dream alive.

Digital Enthusiast

My younger brother was born during the computer era and his idea of life is everything digital. During my childhood, my basic hobbies and pastime activities involved a lot of ‘old-school or analogue’ stuff such as card games and lots of outdoor activities.

However, for the dot com generation like Joe, fun is defined by anything and everything digital. From IPods, to play stations, the young boy lives in a digital playfield. Due to his early exposure to the computer world, the young boy mastered amazing computer skills when he was barely a teenager. By the time he was fifteen, he would literally render everyone speechless with his technological know-how. He even won several junior programming competitions and other computer-related competitions when he was still in junior high.

Being a digital enthusiast, the young boy dreamt of studying programming and computer graphics and securing a job in one of the huge computer companies, Google. However, his dream was cut short when he suffered a mysterious eye infection, which rendered him almost blind.

How Vinux Was Introduced

My brother was diagnosed with a mysterious eye infection whelm he was a senior in high school. He was on course to follow his computer passion in college and then go on to work for his dream computer company. However, within a span of six months, the boy could barely see anything. Additionally, doctors advised that he should avoid computers and even alleged that they were part of the reason for his eye infection. It was very saddening to see the boy’s passion extinguished by the unexpected physical disability.

However, his computer teacher came to the rescue and introduced the young boy to Vinux. Vinux, which is specially designed software for blind and partially sighted computer users, was developed in 2008 at the Royal National College for the Blind in the UK. The software is really amazing as it offers several assistive tools for partially blind and blind computers users. The Linux-based software provides visually impaired computer users with screen readers, full-screen magnifiers, and global font-size and color changing options.

In addition, the system supports Braille displays, which came in handy when my brother was almost blind. Being the young technology enthusiast, my brother quickly learned Braille and mastered how to use Vinux. In less than four months, the young man was back to doing what he liked best due to the assistive tools provided by this life-changing software.

Since then, my brother’s sight has improved but he is still partially blind. However, he has continued to pursue his dream in computers and he is poised to realizing his career job at Google. Reminiscing about the close call that almost robbed the young boy of his dream, Vinux is really a fantastic assistive technology that eliminates disability hurdles that can ruin computer careers.